Geoff Williams, “Fragmentum”, The Artist’s Room Fine Art Gallery

Dunedin-born artist Geoff Williams is a realist who seeks poetry in everyday settings.

While he considers drawing to be an essential pre-study for his paintings, he recognises that they are often comprehensive works in their own right, and it is in view of the latter that he presents “Fragmentum” at The Artist’s Room.

This exhibition consists of 14 framed drawings from nudes to still-lifes. Each image radiates finesse and textural lucidity and not one piece leaves an unworked trace of the hand which created it.

They are so smoothly rendered and so sensitively handled that the perverse side of the viewer might actually begin to search for flaws, but alas, that search would be in vain.

Daytime TV depicts an elderly man sitting at the edge of his bed, topless, but donning socks, sandals, shorts and cane. Beside him, a modern television sits upon a more cumbersome outdated model, placing old against new, and usefulness against futility.

He is in a pose of deep reflection, and the viewer is compelled to ask why. Williams consistently uses light and reflection to incite contemplation over moments passed.

Through familiar subject-matter he provokes an emotional response and be it flesh or feather, sand or sheet, he offers an infallible feast for the eyes.